Can you invite a villager to your island if you have another in boxes?

[Tatoenami]

My friend and I want to switch villagers. He takes Dom that's on my island while I take Julian, which is on his.
Julian is the last villager I'm looking for so I'm not willing to get rid of anyone but Dom in order to make space for him, and my friend is in the same situation (all he needs is Dom).
Are we able to put both villagers in boxes at the same time and then go to each other's islands to invite the other villager?

I hope that makes sense lol. Thank you in advance!

 

[Xara]

unless you have an empty plot, no

 

[futuristicsalad]

Unfortunately, I don't think that's how it works... You can only invite a villager who is in boxes if you have an open house plot. When a villager you have is in boxes, they're still technically a resident on your island, so it wouldn't count as an open house plot for Julian to move into. I'm sure there's a way to coordinate with your friend so that one would have an open plot at the same time that another is in boxes and vice versa, but that's kind of tricky to pull off...
Edit: I do know that this can be pulled off a little easier if you guys TT or have amiibo cards, but otherwise it'd be hard to coordinate

 

[Tatoenami]

unless you have an empty plot, no

Unfortunately, I don't think that's how it works... You can only invite a villager who is in boxes if you have an open house plot. When a villager you have is in boxes, they're still technically a resident on your island, so it wouldn't count as an open house plot for Julian to move into. I'm sure there's a way to coordinate with your friend so that one would have an open plot at the same time that another is in boxes and vice versa, but that's kind of tricky to pull off...
Edit: I do know that this can be pulled off a little easier if you guys TT or have amiibo cards, but otherwise it'd be hard to coordinate

aaah I see, thanks you guys!

 

[futuristicsalad]

aaah I see, thanks you guys!

No prob! I wish you best of luck with that, though! It kind of sucks that it's like that. I wish that they made it a little easier to do that without needing to TT or use amiibo cards to induce open house plots, because I know that not everyone TT's or has access to the amiibo cards (myself included)